Do you fear Death?

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Emerite said:
I would fear the terrible action and pain of an unnatural death by a Nazi violently killing me, but wouldn’t fear God calling me to death in a natural way, which is God’s plan for all of us. It would be the condition of one’s death to be considered. Maybe it takes a true Christian to understand this difference.
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It takes an honest person to know that fear of the unknown is fear of the unknown. We are talking about experiencing God here. It’s really irrelevant what our spiritual standing is. Its delusional to think that you will not be pooping your pants when you are on death bed. The greatest saint in the world fears God and death.
 
ChainBreaker said:
It takes an honest person to know that fear of the unknown is fear of the unknown. We are talking about experiencing God here. It’s really irrelevant what our spiritual standing is. Its delusional to think that you will not be pooping your pants when you are on death bed. The greatest saint in the world fears God and death.
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The human biological functions release in death, including death in bed. That proves nothing.

ICXC NIKA
 
As to fear of death being a matter of spiritual state: even our LORD, who had nothing whatsoever to fear from death, as He could get Himself out of it, still sweAted blood before it.

That is, was in such anguish, and His blood pressure so high that blood was escaping through His skin.

You and I would have literally died of fright long before reaching that point.

ICXC NIKA
 
ChainBreaker said:
It takes an honest person to know that fear of the unknown is fear of the unknown. We are talking about experiencing God here. It’s really irrelevant what our spiritual standing is. Its delusional to think that you will not be pooping your pants when you are on death bed. The greatest saint in the world fears God and death.
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I’m actually curious to know exactly what “life” after death is all about, and have total trust in God, our Creator. Guess I’ll have to do some research on the lives of the saints to confirm that “the greatest saint in the world fears God and death.” What is the difference between perfect and imperfect contrition? Truthfully, the only “fear” I might have is maybe having to serve time in purgatory, and hopefully not to be sentenced to hell. Maybe I’m an exception, but a psychologist’s test revealed that I am self-actualized, which has something to do with being honest with oneself.
 
we find a lot of partly peculiar answers, such as here:
„Anybody who is not totally horrified by the idea of death is adept in the art of self-kidding“

This definitely shows sadly enough a deep misunderstanding of life itself and might well be called a terrible answer, as it mirrors a total disregard of Christ’s doctrine. Indeed surprising, that anyone can state such thing. Poor thing he who agrees to suchlike word. Since anyone’s life might be demanded back even today; where then is any enjoyment of life with this continuos displacement of fact of life?!

Some say: I fear death, but not for me. It is for the folks left behind. But so it is with all Christians. Well, at least right now and here on earth. In heaven we’ll know, that in no time they’ll follow. Surely it wasn’t too easy for the young Jesus Christ when Joseph died; though it was an unimaginable joy for Joseph to see “His Son” was God - but still hardly to bear what would follow and happen to Jesus. But then all heavens must have suffered. A fact very hard to comprehend.

Though with faith all should be rejoicing at our good fortune but probably no-one in the world can. Even Jesus Christ cried in John 11,35. But He cried not because Lazarus had died, but because He saw who deep in grief all where, for who else if not Jesus, did know best that it’ll be as He told in Mt 8,11: - many will come from all sides to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But it wasn’t the time yet, and heavens was closed. *

Fear of the unknown though, is a factor. Or for a believer, fear of what they have done wrong in life! That’s actually the point. "Fear of the unknown“. But let’s ask: Do children while waiting for Christmas have fear of the unknown? They are rather full of excitement about what is to come and expecting them - whilst they do know, that it’s all going to be very pleasant.*
But yes, true, "fear of what they have done wrong in life!“** this indeed is a point believers do fear. Oh - blimey what on earth have I done and not done I should have done. Yes, that’s an alarming point believers consider. But otherwise we actually do know*- know instead of just hope, that we will see God and give account of the live we lived and we had leased for some time.
*
Atheists fear the nothingness of what they believe, for what it more frightening than the endless NOTHING - the „nihil“ and nihilism modern „Buddhists“ try to favor. No soul, - nobody will ever dissolve or merge in the great nothing. This horrifying idea would make all our being senseless.*
Others would fear to leave all behind them, that meant something in their life - like Christ showed in Luke 12,17-20: Arich man owned values inabundance andthought to himself: Iown fortunes, so I’ll relax, eat, drink, celebrate!*But God said to him; You fool! This very night your life will be demanded back from you.…”

As nobody will ever be dead, life - our real life will go on in eternity. So why worry in greed to grab as much values as possible here on earth where we dwell such short a time, whilst our real life begins with nothing but our values we collected in heaven during our**probation-period on earth? Mt*6:19 “Do not accumulate for yourselves treasures on earth, which you’ll all loose. But accumulate for yourselves treasures in heaven, which never vanish.
What is we bring instead treasures in heaven - just failures and decay?

No! As there is no death, fear of death wouldn’t make any sense. For God - Jesus Christ said in John 11,15: He who believes in Me will live even if he dies,*and the one who lives and believes in Me will never die.

Now, the*choice is simple, for there are but two options.First is to believe and live forever, second is eternal death - the second death named among others in Revelation 20,14 or inRomans 6,23.

This is by all means no thread, but good news. He who sees this as thread, didn’t understand a thing about life. It’s far more so Good News, for it takes off us any fear of death, as we now know, that death is our door to our real life in God’s kingdom in a splendor no ear has ever heard and no eye ever seen 1Cor 2,9.

OK we all often hear from others - „.…all that is matter of belief. To belief, doesn’t mean to know. We know nothing, but imagine a lot".
RUBBISH! For if a close friend tells you something, you really do know it and don’t simply hope it’s true, for this would mean to betray the friend - this friend who actually never was a friend of ours. How much more than a friend is Jesus Christ, who out of love dearly offered his friendship to us and even gave His life away for this love.
Isn’t the greatest sin of earth - to doubt God?!

Yours
Bruno
 
Emerite said:
I’m actually curious to know exactly what “life” after death is all about, and have total trust in God, our Creator. Guess I’ll have to do some research on the lives of the saints to confirm that “the greatest saint in the world fears God and death.” What is the difference between perfect and imperfect contrition? Truthfully, the only “fear” I might have is maybe having to serve time in purgatory, and hopefully not to be sentenced to hell. Maybe I’m an exception, but a psychologist’s test revealed that I am self-actualized, which has something to do with being honest with oneself.
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Has it not been said that if you experienced God as God you would die of fright?
 
ChainBreaker said:
Has it not been said that if you experienced God as God you would die of fright?
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It is refreshing to know that you believe in God. We’d be interested in knowing exactly where it is said that if one experienced God as God, one would die of fright. Please let us know in what Bible Chapter and Verse, or elsewhere, we could find such a quote.
 
Emerite said:
It is refreshing to know that you believe in God. We’d be interested in knowing exactly where it is said that if one experienced God as God, one would die of fright. Please let us know in what Bible Chapter and Verse, or elsewhere, we could find such a quote.
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Although it doesn’t say fright, I imagine he was thinking of Moses, who in Ex. was told that no man could see God’s face and live.

One normally does not die, in the absence of internal or external “forcing,” except by fright; but the Scripture doesn’t say that.

ICXC NIKA
 
The unknown is always a little scary, the adventure is usually worth it, especially, the phrase in scripture, eye has not seen, ear has not heard, what God has in store for those who love Him.

God Bless:)
 
It depends on the day, I used to fear death way more when I was younger than I do now. Probably the only reason I don’t fear it as much is from seeing a close relative go from relatively sick, to the doctors giving a “making progress” prognosis, to dying, all happening within a span of 3 days. On the flip side some days I might sit and wonder about it, so I might be 50/50.
 
meltzerboy said:
I always thought Christians, perhaps more for Catholics than for (some) Protestants or Orthodox, feared hell more than they feared the annihilation of the soul (and body) or oblivion. The latter, I thought, was the main fear of Jews, who are not raised with the idea they might wind up in hell. So your own fear of oblivion somewhat surprises me, even though I realize people are people whatever their religious roots.
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I think you are right there. I think St Paul is who truly taught us to not get too big for our britches.😛
 
ChainBreaker said:
Has it not been said that if you experienced God as God you would die of fright?
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No. Nowhere in the Bible it’s said so. First people God created did see God. But they lost the privilege of being able to see God through sin. So, God said to Moses in Exodus 33,20 “if a man sees Me he does not live”.
But “die of fright” with God who loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son for our salvation, would be an oxymoron or contradiction in itself.

To die means nothing else, but to leave our body behind, like takin off our filthy gown, before we appear before God. Many have been on the step of death. Fear to die - fear of death then had he, who lived without God, even denied God, for not even the “strongest” atheist can prove “there is no God”. He who lived in God; he who lived in belief and faith, will rather (as I too several times did whe I was convinced to die now) pray and ask God - if he really dies now, that God receives him in grace though he is unworthy, as - accept to Saints, we all are.

Yours
Bruno
 
BrunoMaria said:
No. Nowhere in the Bible it’s said so. First people God created did see God. But they lost the privilege of being able to see God through sin. So, God said to Moses in Exodus 33,20 “if a man sees Me he does not live”.
But “die of fright” with God who loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son for our salvation, would be an oxymoron or contradiction in itself.

To die means nothing else, but to leave our body behind, like takin off our filthy gown, before we appear before God. Many have been on the step of death. Fear to die - fear of death then had he, who lived without God, even denied God, for not even the “strongest” atheist can prove “there is no God”. He who lived in God; he who lived in belief and faith, will rather (as I too several times did when I was convinced to die now) pray and ask God - if he really dies now, that God receives him in grace though he is unworthy, as - accept to Saints, we all are.

Yours
Bruno
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I think anybody who has ever been in the presence of the unknown will admit a feeling of fear and even dread. Its unnatural to have no fear of the existential unknown. If you saw an alien you would be afraid, even more so if you saw God. It has nothing to do with your moral standing.

Also I don’t think worthiness in the presence of God has any meaning. Nobody is worthy of heaven. Heaven is given as a gift that is either accepted or rejected.

I think its a mistake to measure ourselves as worthy. We are either fulfilling our natures or not. We are sick and we need to be healed, it is not a matter of worthy.

A human who thinks that a man is unworthy of God’s love will not pray for that man’s salvation.
 
ChainBreaker said:
I think anybody who has ever been in the presence of the unknown will admit a feeling of fear and even dread. Its unnatural to have no fear .
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Right, the question becomes why do you fear death. Or whats the essence of your fear. There may be an interaction with guilt or other points to consider.

Consider this, if your walking in the pitch dark your not really scared of the dark, perhaps spooked, your scared of what may happen in the dark, the unknown. So your scared of what either may happen to you or what you may have to do while something is happening to you. Its likely one is in fear of their own actions and the guilt which follows and relates to the moral code.
 
Funny really, that in the whole and actually long, though long ago ended CAF-thread
DO YOU FEAR DEATH< more or less all stated to fear death. Named reason among others was „It’s unnatural to have no fear“
here the additive „of death“ is missing.
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OK, it’s really unnatural to have no fear, for if we had no fear of anything, then we wouldn’t take care of life by either fleeing the danger, or fight it.

But a very much other thing is „Fear of Death“. No animal fears death - it doesn’t know what death is and just fears to be painfully injured, so avoids painful thorns, deep waters, steep rocks etc. by not getting near them, as well as painful raptors by fleeing them. We know what death is and that we eventually can’t escape death - all humans before us died - we will too. The decisive problem though, is the very much different comprehension of DEATH. To atheists it’s the end of everything, to believing Christians it’s the start of our real life in God’s kingdom. Fear we only can feel actually, if St. Paul’s word applies to us, when he said in Hebrews 10,31: It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. This only hits us, if we denied God and disregarded His but 2 commandments of >love God and love your next< (John 13,34 and Matthew 22:36-40).

Now, you might say; this guy is talking folly, as he never was near death!
Well, with 3 heart-attacks and 4 strokes I actually often was. I often was convinced to die RIGHT NOW. All that really very much bothered me then, was to leave my wife alone.
I’m ok now thanks to prayers, and survived all attacks of „The Grim Reaper“ which of course doesn’t exist and is a faithless invention of irreligious minds, scaring children and simple minds.
Some say: No, it’s a Church-invention, as in so much sacred art he scull or skeleton plays a role. Yes is does, but not as the fairy-tale figure of the Grim Reaper, but simply as a Memento mori (Latin: „Remember that you will die“) - meaning; “remember that you are not this body of Yours, but you are your soul who will see God”.

As I countless times repeated in so many talks as well as in forums "THERE IS NO DEATH!“ Paul tried to point that out in 1Cor 15,55: „Death where is your sting?“ meaning THERE IS NO DEATH! Not to a believer who will never die, but will „in one instant“ as Paul writes in 1Cor 15,52, see Jesus Christ.
OK - Paul describes here the Last Judgement. But it was Jesus Christ Himself who underlined in : John 11,25: He who believes in Me will come to life even if he dies, and the one who lives and believes in Me will never die forever.
Jesus here even adds in a commanding question: DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?

So, a new question arises: If we fear Death; do we then not believe Jesus’ word of: He who believes in Me will never die forever ?

Yours
Bruno
 
BrunoMaria said:
In our today’s paper we got an interview with David Garret
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Garrett_%28musician%29
(Star-Violonist 34) about „Fear of Death“.
This guy answered:
“I don’t have any fear of death, because I don’t have any non-good memory about the time before I was born. So, I won’t have any at the time after death”

Ain’t this a terribly questionable answer. Surprising that any paper would print such pointless babble.
But it’s a silly question too; „Do you fear death?“

Christians who lived in God can’t fear Death, for there is no death and no-one is ever dead. There is just a door called „death" we have to pass to be in God’s hemisphere. We might fear illness and other bad ways of dying - but “to fear Death” attests asubstantial lack of Jesus’ doctrine.
He however, who denied God, ought to know Paul’s word of Hebrews 10,31: It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
To all others - then our real life begins.

Yours
Bruno
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Yes I do. Especially the suffering that often accompanies it.
 
rinnie said:
We all say no until it comes down to that last breath. I don’t care what anyone says. We all fear the unknown.

But we pray our fear will be overcome and taken away quickly by the love and promise of God.
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Amen! 👍
 
Faith1960 said:
Yes I do. Especially the suffering that often accompanies it.
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OK - so do I, but we can sacrifice this suffering to God. I know quite a few who did and still do. Hopefully I will too - if at all I’ll be in similar state. My deceased son did not suffer a second (He was found with a smashed back of his head and then held “alive” on machines, until it was decided who gets which organ, and so Björn saw God in an instant, without any suffering at all.
However - possible suffering is not the point. The subject here is merely the very end; which is actually the very beginning of our real life. >Do you fear Death?< meaning the inevitable end of earthly life and the transition to Jesus Christ.
As long as we pray for no fear of Death; that our fear will be overcome and taken away quickly by the love and promise of God, then we still do fear death.
I wouldn’t say that this fear then is a normal “fear of the unknown” for we do know what will be and what will follow, though it’s what no earthly eye ever has seen and no ear ever heard (1Cor 2,9). Jesus Christ told us more than once. And isn’t it mere joy to hear Jesus say in the Gospel: John 11,25: He who believes in Me will come to life even if he dies, and the one who lives and believes in Me will never die forever. And further more Jesus said in John 3,18; that he who believes in Jesus Christ will not be judged.

To die actually means the greatest and most exiting moments of our life, for we see God. That’s what the Bible tells us from first letter to last dot. OK - it might be no fun to die, but though one shouldn’t boast with his prayers, I admit, that ever time I thought to die NOW, I prayed “if I die now, please accept me and take me to You”.

Nothing in this is fearful - actually it’s a mere thrill of anticipation and let me confess that not just I, but quite a few people I know, sometimes even had a joyful feeling about “Death” - for it doesn’t mean anything else but to finally see God.

Yours
Bruno
 
When I was young I had little sense of self presivation,lol
But now that I’m older and perhaps not much wiser,
I have a better appreciation of life and what life creates,
Do I Fear Death,. No not really, it’s a long time since I saw Death fade to face,
I guess there is apprehension ,
 
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